ThunderStruck: WCW Monday Nitro Retro Review 10/23/95

Macho Man takes on Kurasawa with Colonel Parker to start the show. Savage wins the six minute opener with the flying elbow.

^Decent way to kick off Nitro. Better than all the two minute matches we’ve had over the past couple weeks. Kurasawa is highly underrated for his physicality and aggressiveness in the ring.

The lights go out in the arena as some creepy guy cuts a promo on the tron. He talks about the Dungeon of Doom messing with Hulk Hogan(this promo is done to put over Hogan being slightly evil now to take down the Giant and the Dungeon of Doom destroying Hulkamania. There is a giant ice block sitting there.

Mean Gene interviews Kevin Sullivan with the Giant. Sullivan says the block of ice is an insurance policy for them against Hulk Hogan. Giant cuts another over the top promo where he sounds like a chain-smoking old lady.

^That was just weird, but we know it’s building to something huge for the pay per view coming up.

Mean Gene interviews Jimmy Hart and Hulk Hogan. Hogan rambles on as usual about what he’ll do to the Giant.

^Sickening Hogan promo. Looks like he’d been tanning the past couple weeks instead of wrestling for an audience. Typical Hogan.

Dean Malenko and Chris Benoit take on Mr. JL and Eddie Guerrero(Alex Wright is with them on crutches and couldn’t get a doctor’s release to be in the match).

Mr. JL pins Malenko nine minutes into the match to get the win for himself and Guerrero.

^The luchadors/cruiserweights continue to impress us in this tag team matches. Matches like this were the foundation of Nitro and kept fans entertained when the main events were filled with too much talking.

Brian Pillman jumps Eddie Guerrero after the match to start a new rivalry.

Harlem Heat w/Sherri take on Lex Luger and Sting. Sting gets the pin eight minutes into the match for the win.

^Solid(meaning between 2 and 2 and a half stars when I say “solid”) tag team match to main event the program.

The Giant comes out and slams both Sting and Luger as the Taskmaster directs traffic. Savage comes out and confronts the Giant but Hogan comes up behind and confronts him. Savage tries to talk Hogan out of it but can’t so he leaves. It’s Hogan and Giant right now, but the Giant doesn’t react as Hogan punches him twice. GIant then clubs Hogan down. Hogan hulks up and gets the upper hand before the whole Dungeon of Doom hits the ring. Savage and Hogan get the upper hand and the floor shakes as the camera focuses on the giant ice block. It explodes and a mummy is shown as the show goes off the air.

^That was a solid way to hype the pay per view with the Giant/Hogan confrontation to close the show, but the mummy stuff is just silly. Silly, silly and more silly.

We had three matches that went nine, eight and six minutes each. We had Halloween Havoc hype for the World Title and some weird storyline stuff to go with it. Call it another 6.5 out of 10 from me. Halloween Havoc is next!